Pols preview questions for Hillary Clinton

Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said he will press outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at Wednesday’s hearings on the deadly attack at a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi about why additional security wasn’t provided.

“The secretary of state, basically — the decision was made not to provide those assets, which were provided for free from the Defense Department, in order to defend our personnel. That’s one question we have,” Royce said on CNN’s “Starting Point.”

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Royce, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that will question Clinton, said that after reviewing State Department memos, he also wants to ask Clinton about the “culture” at the State Department.

”It’s forcing us to ask what’s wrong with the culture of the Department of State that they would not accept free assets?’” he said on CNN.

Royce added: “They made the decision not to do it. Why? I do not know, and we intend to find out because this is going to continue to be an ongoing question as our embassies come under attack in North Africa and around the world.”

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee where Clinton will also testify, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that he would like to know why it was U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice who appeared on Sunday morning shows in the aftermath of the Benghazi attack to explain what had taken place.

“There are still lingering questions out there that a lot of people want answered as to why Susan Rice was deputized or the one put forward to go and state the administration’s position on this, and I assume [Clinton will] get some questions on that,” Flake said on MSNBC.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said that he wants to know exactly what Clinton’s involvement was.

“In the attack itself, what was her participation? I mean she was the one that famously ran the [2008 Democratic primary ad] against Barack Obama — ‘It’s 3 a.m. The attack comes what’s he going to do? Um, President Obama and Secretary Clinton were both on watch that night,” he said on CNN on Wednesday.